Analysis of Until Her Death
Dinah Maria Mulock Craik 1826 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire) – 1887 (Shortlands, London)
UNTIL her death!' the words read strange yet real,
Like things afar off suddenly brought near:--
Will it be slow or speedy, full of fear,
Or calm as a spent day of peace ideal?
II.
Will her brown locks lie white on coffin pillow?
Will these her eyes, that sometime were called sweet,
Close, after years of dried-up tears, or meet
Death's dust in midst of weeping? And that billow,--
Her restless heart,--will it be stopped, still heaving?
Or softly ebb 'neath age's placid breath?
Will it be lonely, this mysterious death,
Fit close unto her solitary living,--
A turning of her face to the wall, nought spoken,
Exchanging this world's light for heaven's;--or will
She part in pain, from warm love to the chill
Unknown, pursued with cries of hearts half-broken?
With fond lips felt through the blind mists of dying,
And close arms clung to in the struggle vain;--
Or, these all past, will death to her be gain,
Unto her life's long question God's replying?
No more. Within his hand, divine as tender,
He holds the mystic measure of her days;
And be they few or many, His the praise,--
In life or death her Keeper and Defender.
Then, come He soon or late, she will not fear Him;
Be her end lone or loveful, she'll not grieve;
For He whom she believed in--doth believe--
Will call her from the dust, and she will hear Him.
Scheme | ABBAX CDDC EFFE GHHG EIIE JKKJ LMML |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0101011111 1101110011 1111110111 1110111101 1 10111111010 110111011 1101111111 11011100110 01011111110 1101110101 11110101001 1110010010 010101101110 01011111011 1101111101 01011111110 11111011110 0111100101 1111111011 10011101010 11011101110 1101010101 0111110101 01110100010 11111111111 101111111 1111010101 11010101111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,343 |
Words | 255 |
Sentences | 19 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 29 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 144 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:18 min read
- 91 Views
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"Until Her Death" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/8091/until-her-death>.
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